Tag Archives: Reading

Free Days: The Toadhouse Trilogy

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Celebrate the first days of autumn with a free download of Jess Lourey’s latest book, the first in a young adult trilogy that Paul Goat Allen of The Chicago Tribune calls “a must read” that “truly does have the potential to become a young adult classic.” The free download is available only on September 21 and 22 through Amazon. Link is here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Toadhouse-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B008ML9ONS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348074508&sr=8-2&keywords=the+toadhouse+trilogy.

THE TOADHOUSE TRILOGY: BOOK ONE, released August 2012:
“Lourey’s wonderful way with words will whisk readers away to an amazing new world!” –Anthony and Agatha Award winning author Chris Grabenstein

DECEMBER DREAD, released October 2012:
“Lourey, who keeps her secrets well, delivers a breathtaking finale.”  –Publishers Weekly

FMB Blog Tour: Duty and Desire

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Welcome to the Duty and Desire Blog Tour stop! Check out the excerpt below and a guest post from author Anju Gattani about researching your novel. She has some good info and tips in her post so check it out!

Title: Duty and Desire

Series: Winds of Fire #1

Author: Anju Gattani

Genre: Family Saga

Publisher: Greenbrier Book Co.

Ebook/Paperback

Pages: 304

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Books A Million |

Book Description:

How Can Happiness Survive When Duty Clashes With Desire?

Sheetal Prasad has it all: youth, beauty, wealth and education. But when this modern Indian woman surrenders love for honor and marries into India’s most glamorous ‘royal family’, these very advantages turn against her and she is stripped of her freedom.

Meet the Dhanrajs — a powerful family bound together by a web of lies where infidelity, greed, secrets and hidden identities lurk beneath the lush tapestry. The Dhanrajs have plenty to hide and will do what it takes to mask the truth from the world.

As Sheetal peels back the layers of deceit, she confronts a haunting reality and is threatened by the blazes of passion she ignites. Continue reading FMB Blog Tour: Duty and Desire →

Status Update: Project Editor

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Just a quick update to say that I’ve been offered a contract editor position for a publishing company! I’m super excited to be working with this team of editors. I’d been proofreading for them for almost a year and guess I did a good job! All that work is paying off!

Not to fear – I still love my indies and will continue working with you as well. And I’m still taking on new authors as well, just scheduling a little better now.

🙂

Free Days: Night of the Purple Moon

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Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer will be available for free download on September 10th and 11th. Check out this thriller, I know I will!

Blurb:

Space germs wipe out virtually everyone who has passed through puberty.

Abby Leigh is looking forward to watching the moon turn purple. For months, astronomers have been predicting that Earth will pass through the tail of a comet. They say that people will see colorful sunsets and, best of all, a purple moon.

But nobody has predicted the lightning-fast epidemic that sweeps across the planet on the night of the purple moon. The comet brings space dust with it that contains germs that attack human hormones. Older teens and adults die within hours of exposure.

On a small island off the coast of Maine, Abby must help her brother and baby sister survive in this new world, but all the while she has a ticking time bomb inside of her — adolescence.

Links:

US url: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Purple-Moon-ebook/dp/B007OVUPXU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1333803865&sr=1-1

UK url: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Purple-Moon-ebook/dp/B007OVUPXU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334839537&sr=8-1

FMB Blog Tour: Milk Carton People

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Welcome to my stop on the FMB Milk Carton People: The Journey. I have for your viewing pleasure an excerpt and a guest post from the author! Enjoy!

Title: Milk Carton People: The Journey

Author: Sally Franklin Christie

Genre: Suspense, Thriller

Publisher: Eternal Press

Paperback/Ebook

Pages: 132

Purchase:

Eternal Press | Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | ARe | 1 Place for Romance | GoHastings | BooksOnBoard | Coffee Time Romance | Barnes and Noble Paperback | Barnes and Noble Nook | iTunes/iBook | OmniLit | Fiction Wise |

Book Description:

Milk Carton People is a paranormal thriller about people who suddenly find themselves invisible, able to observe things but unable to participate.  Do they go mad?  Maybe they find others.  It is quite possible that there is no point in being invisible.

This is a book that plays on the very thin line of sanity and pure despair.  The characters act and react to the new challenges and the reader gets to go along for the ride.

Excerpt

I’m going to wake up, now, and go about my day with my cup of coffee. By the time I get to work, the whole thing will disappear like all dreams. I won’t even remember it.

She turned away from the little tree and took a few steps down the sidewalk. She intended to turn back toward the book store again, to somehow retake control of her destiny. As if turning back would give everyone one more chance to tell her it was all in fun and she was such a good sport.

Just then, a woman in an electric blue colored coat, walked right into her.

“Excuse, me,” Ruth began and stopped speechless. For one long, drawn out, slow motion, nightmare second, her vision was obscured by a brownish red filter which blurred everything before her. She felt hot, sticky, and confined. A cloying odor of spoiled hamburger made her gasp for clean air. She tasted copper pennies in her mouth. At the same time Ruth heard a gurgling noise and a squeak and as the whole event suddenly ended she heard a plop like pudding falling from a spoon back into the bowl.

A sudden cold sweat competed with stomach acid lurching into her throat. Ruth swallowed it back and turned to watch as the woman in electric blue continued walking down the sidewalk without breaking stride. Ruth watched the woman in the electric blue coat disappear around the corner.

“No,” Ruth said aloud with authority. “No,” she repeated louder, hoping make it all go away. “This did not happen.”

She walked to the nearest building and stood close to the cold bricks in the shadows.

I have to go home.

Guest Post:

Milk Carton People is told through the eyes and mind of Ruth.

The seed for Ruth was planted as I observed a waitress with Ruth on her nametag.  She was very nondescript, average in every sort of way.

I took Ruth home and imagined a back story for her and gave her a disability.

I gave her a back story.  As a person with a disability she lived her social life in some isolation.  Children can be very mean or busy and she was often left behind.

This isolation is probably what kept her sane as the story began to form.

I began by plopping Ruth on a park bench before work.  She nods off and when she awakens life as she knew it was forever changed.

She had become invisible and unable to interact with the physical world around her.  People walked right through her and she began to adjust.

Why was she invisible?  Was she dead?  Where was her body?  She muddled for a long time before she found others that were like her.

She left her isolation and became part of a small group of equally confused people and began to cope with the new world.

Ruth never had an easy time but she gained some strength and understanding of other people and their coping skills.

Ruth remains nondescript but she does evolve and adapt.  If she comes back in another book she will no doubt have made herself into a very memorable, capable and confident leader.

About the Author:

Eternal Press Staff Member

Biography

Marketing Manager

Sally Franklin Christie has spent her life achieving incredibly average goals. Her challenges and choices have led to into the world of organizing for social change, civil rights and helping people navigate in a world filled with physical barriers and discrimination. She photographs and paints landscapes, when she isn’t at the computer researching, networking and writing. Special interests include Missing Children and Adults, Astronomy, Character Traits and Criminal Thinking.

A home schooling mother of children born eleven years apart has added to her liberal arts education. She’s had plenty of time to practice and refine the art and craft of writing coupled with opportunities to learn the marketing aspects of writing. She interned for a spell at WOW-Womenonwriting.com and currently has a position as a moderator at The Writers Chatroom. Various published articles appear in places like Pangia Magazine, Creations Magazine and other almost forgotton places. She writes one novel a year as a NaNoWriMo Participant and keeps a more serious project simmering year round.

Links to the Author:

Website | E-mail Address: sally@sallyfranklinchristie.com | Twitter: SallyChristie | Facebook

Book Trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYn2xcZKkFc

This tour was put together by FMB Blog Tours

Free Days: The Necro Device

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The Necro Device goes on sale today, 9/6/2012, for free on Amazon for Kindle owners. It’s the new classic edition, with many new features, such as acknowledgements, preface, afterword by me, and some revision and editing. The cover was redesigned back to the original cover with a darker twist. Get your copy here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Necro-Device-ebook/dp/B006T84G7A

Classic Edition:

The classic edition of The Necro Device features previous content that was removed while under the publisher. In addition the original artwork was restored and modified with a darker twist to better represent the novel itself. Front and back matter has been re-added to the novel. It now contains the Acknowledgements, Preface, and Afterword from the author. The ebook and paperback both received desperately needed reformatting. This version of The Necro Device is the most pure to its original form and is now published through the author.

Promo:

A page-turner of darkest depth. Betrayal, fear, and layers of hidden agendas all play parts in this intense, pulse-pounding thriller.

Inspiration:

The Necro Device came to me in a dream one night. I barely knew what the story was at the time other than it was about 5 brothers who all die. I left it at that and went on with my life. Over the years I kept having nightmares about the brothers and the story. They became so frequent and vivid that I had no choice but to sit down and write it or continue to live a life of nightmares. It was my first novel length story and it basically possessed me while I was writing it. I wrote day in and day out six days a week for almost eight months non-stop. But that was only the beginning. Between work, school, life, money, and everything else there is, I never had much time to get it completed, so for eight more years I slowly sculpted, revised, rewrote, and edited it so many times I was ready to throw my computer through the window. I can honestly say, it was the biggest project I ever completed. I learned a lot, and in the end, it was well worth every minute. I’d never take that learning experience back.

Synopsis:

John and Mary Hilt are hired to restore the Mandiev mansion isolated between four surrounding towns. The original owners, the Mandiev brothers, were world famous performers who died decades ago. Rumors that the mansion is haunted soon work their way to Mary, and nightmares begin to eat away at her sanity. She becomes obsessed with the Mandiev, wanting to know more. Determined to unlock their secrets, she digs deeper into their past and learns of a deadly device. An intricate web of betrayal slowly unravels, and she finds herself within its dark center.

It all begins with a betrayal, a machine, and a darker intent… It has a purpose.

Back Flap:

John and Mary Hilt are hired to restore the Mandiev mansion isolated between four surrounding towns. In the past, the Mandiev brothers had a fatal accident which killed hundreds of local citizens. The event marks the beginning of a device that will control its creator and affect the community for years to come. Mary will discover the madness that spawned from its awakening and unravel its deadly secrets. The Necro Device is a mind-melting, suspense thriller loaded with hidden agendas, twists, and a diabolical plot.

It all begins with a betrayal, a machine, and a darker intent… It has a purpose.

History:

The Necro Device was first published under the title Mandiev in September, 2011. In December of that same year the name was changed to The Necro Device. In April of 2012, it was picked up by a publisher and the cover art was changed. In August of 2012, the rights were returned back to the author, and the novel got a full revision and edit. The cover was changed to the darker cover seen above, and it was republished as The Necro Device (Classic Edition) September of 2012, the novel was picked up by DarkGate Publishing, the authors own publishing company. The novel continues to sale very well, and we hope it continues to do so moving forward.  Pick up a copy today.

FMB Blog Tour: Bone Wires

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Welc0me to my stop on the FMB Bone Wires Blog Tour! I have a guest post from author Michael Shean below, keep reading!

Title: Bone Wires

Author: Michael Shean

Genre: Dark, Mystery, Science Fiction,

Publisher: Curiosity Quills/Whampa, LLC

Paperback/Ebook

Pages: 380 (paperback)

Purchase: Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Print) | B&N (Nook & Print) | Books-A-Million |

Book Description:

In the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated not by government but by private companies.

In Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a detective in Homicide Solutions. What used to be considered an important – even glamorous – department for public police is very different for the corporate species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job. That is, until the Spine Thief arrives.

When a serial killer begins harvesting the spinal tissue of corporate employees all over the city, Detective Gray finds himself plunged into the first truly major case of his career. Caught in a dangerous mix of murder, betrayal and conflicting corporate interest, Gray will find himself not only matching wits with a diabolical murderer but grapple with his growing doubt toward his employers in the dawning months of the American tricentennial.

A thrilling mystery set in the same world as the Wonderland Cycle, Bone Wires is a grim trip into the streets of the empty future. Continue reading FMB Blog Tour: Bone Wires →

Cover Reveal: Tirade

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For all those of you waiting for the next book in the Heven and Hell series (I know I am!), here’s the brand new cover! On the cover of Tirade is Riley – a new character in the book… I think of him as the resident bad boy. What do you think?
Title: Tirade (Heven and Hell #3)
Genre: YA paranormal
Publisher: Cambria Hebert
Release date: November 30, 2012
Format: Ebook and Paperback

Blurb:

Betrayal burns. Death hurts and the clock ticks…

Minutes and hours stretch into days. How long can Sam survive  being confined in Hell? I have a plan… a plan with a lot of holes. I need someone who can make up for my weaknesses, someone who possesses the power that I lack. Riley is supposed to be off limits. He’s dangerous, he’s mean and he’s not to be trusted. But I do.

Beelzebub is on a tirade, bent on revenge. I took what he wants and sent him into the flames. I will wear the scars of his punishments forever. But scars don’t scare me anymore.

On my way to free Sam I find my true path, a secret place and new allies. But in Hell nothing is easy… and everything is cruel. The only thing left to do is survive.

Trailer:

Review: Xor: The Shape of Darkness

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Xor: The Shape of Darkness
Xor: The Shape of Darkness by Moshe Sipper
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’m a boy named Lewis Nash and today is my twelfth birthday.

Upon waking up on his twelfth birthday, Lewis discovers that he can Shape. Before he can really figure out what to do with this new ability, he is whisked away to Xor with a very important mission – saving the planet from the Realm Pirates. With the help of a few new friends, Lewis sets out to do just that.

The reader is thrown into Lewis’s world, abruptly leaving his “home” to a new planet more advanced than Earth, with Artificial Persons, interactive computers, holographs, werewolves, and magic. It seems like a conglomeration of everything tossed into one book, and since Xor isn’t very well-developed, it is hard to see how these all fit together.

The pacing is varied, with some fast sections at the beginning but most of the book being too slow. Lewis asks a lot of questions – which I would assume of a young person – but the questions he asks are either not necessary, not relevant, or not answered. The plot also gets sidetracked at several points, going of on tangents of minimal importance.

The writing itself is simple – perhaps too much so, though it could be good for a younger reader. While Lewis is twelve and should act appropriately, some of the ideas he struggles with seems to imply he is much younger. The repetitive narrative can wear on the reader, causing a lack of interest in what could be a very interesting story.

Hidden within Xor is a growing up story about a young boy forced to face fantastical things and to overcome the sadness inside of himself.

View all my reviews

Review: Tales From The Dew Drop Inne

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Tales From The Dew Drop Inne
Tales From The Dew Drop Inne by Kenneth Weene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“I guess you could say I’m from The Dew Drop Inne. There’s one in every town.”

Set in a local bar and narrated by Calvin, this collection of stories depicts the lives of those who hang on to the bottom rung of life’s social ladder. From strippers to musicians to veterans, the desperate often-drunk people that inhabit the bar and call it “home” are clinging to what little family they have – all the regulars at the bar.

Within these pages are colorful tales of people that could be anywhere. The life they lead is illuminated, showing companionship, competitiveness, and compassion mixed in with the drunken mishaps. Through the collection, the reader watches the characters take shape, though sometimes can still not relate to said characters due to their lot in life.

Tales From The Dew Drop Inne takes a bunch of characters that everyone knows (but doesn’t) and portrays them in a setting many are familiar with to some extent. The slice-of-life collection deals with characters and issues that are considered “beneath” many but shows the goodness that is still present in these run-down people.

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